Friday 18th August 2017

UNLEARN BIPHOBIA

Challenge stereotypes of bisexuality which propose that bisexual people are “promiscuous”, “going through a phase” and/or “cannot make up their mind”. These stereotypes exist in both queer and straight social circles, and demean bisexuality as a valid identity. Sexuality is fluid. Sexuality evolves and changes over a person’s lifetime. An individual’s’ sexual or romantic preference is for them and them only to define.

Recognise a bisexual persons’ queerness is unquestionable, regardless of who they are in a relationship with. If a bisexual person is in a relationship with someone of the “opposite gender”, their queerness remains valid.

Understand bisexuality is not adherent to binary notions of gender. Bisexual people may be attracted to two or more genders.

For more tips and resources on unlearning, click on one of the images below!

Now you have started your unlearning journey, keep going! The LGBTQIA* community is abundant with colourful, intersecting identities. What do you know about the intersex community? What are your assumptions about asexuality? Do you know what it means to be takatāpui? How does Aotearoa’s history of colonisation inform how we conceive of gender and sexuality today? Here are some links below to keep learning, unlearning and relearning!

*Cisgender (often abbreviated to simply cis) is a term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cisgender may also be defined as those who have “a gender identity or perform a gender role society considers appropriate for one’s sex”. It is the opposite of the term transgender.